McDonnell takes energy break for quick trip to Wallops

Gov. Bob McDonnell took a break Monday from back-to-back energy conferences in Richmond to visit the Eastern Shore.

His destination: NASA Wallops Flight Facility.

Interesting timing considering Virginia officials are feuding with Florida's aerospace industry over the role Wallops will play in future human spaceflight missions.

Sunshine State leaders say they are worried that NASA may duplicate services by launching manned space missions from Wallops.

NASA Wallops officials counter that the agency is simply studying all aspects of future expansion — that no astronaut launches are planned from Wallops.

The Virginia General Assembly in recent years has passed a slew of business-friendly laws designed to entice aerospace corporations to Wallops, which is overseen by NASA Goddard Space Center in Maryland.

So far, it has landed one big fish: Orbital Sciences Corp. The Northern Virginia-based company stunned Florida officials in 2008 when it chose Wallops instead of Cape Canaveral to launch rockets that will carry cargo to the International Space Station.

The $2 billion contract Orbital landed with NASA sparked millions of dollars of investment at Wallops and nearby Mid-Atlantic Spaceport. It seems to have also sparked fears in Florida, home of the nation's Space Coast.

McDonnell has said he wants to make the spaceport tops in the nation and called for a 10-fold increase in funding, according to a statement issued Monday.

McDonnell will be back in Richmond on Tuesday, where he is scheduled to give the keynote address during the second annual governor's conference on energy. The event follows the Southern States Energy Board meeting.

Chesapeake Bay lawsuit

Pity the lawyers representing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, especially when it comes to the Chesapeake Bay.

A federal judge ruled last week that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a Maryland-based nonprofit, and others can argue on behalf of the EPA's revamped bay restoration plan.

The plan is subject to a lawsuit filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Association of Home Builders, which both contend it is based on flawed science.

The foundation, whose lawsuit helped compel the EPA to move forward on the plan, said the lobbying groups want to derail the effort because they're concerned about pollution reduction programs.

So, to recap: EPA lawyers were fighting the foundation under the Bush administration. Now they're battling trade groups under President Barack Obama. And they're one-time foe, the foundation, now wants to help them.

At least the EPA's lawyers have job security.

Stink bugs and apples

Apple lovers can breath a little easier because the federal government allocated $5.7 million to fight brown-marmorated stink bugs in Virginia and six other states.

The pest, which Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., calls "the bug from hell," caused $37 million worth of damage last year to Virginia's apple crop.

Native to Asia, the brown-marmorated stink bug was first found in the U.S. in 1998 near Allentown, Pa. It has since been spotted as far west as California and has no known natural predators, according to state officials.

The EPA earlier this year allowed farmers to spray up to 29,000 acres of crops with insecticides designed to kill the bugs.

Limited to the western and central parts of Virginia, agriculture officials worry the stink bug will move to Hampton Roads and affect major crops, such as soybeans, corn and cotton.

The $5.7 million will fund research on non-chemical defenses, such as pheromone-based traps and predatory insects as opposed to insecticides, according to Bartlett.

Contact Nealon at 247-4760 or cnealon@dailypress.com. For more science and environment news, read The Deadrise blog at dailypress.com/deadrise.